For years we’ve been bombarded with medical and food company propaganda claiming there to be health benefits in low saturated-fat, high carb diets. We’ve been told that bread, pasta and other grain-based foods are good for us. Fats have been demonized to the point that the word “nonfat” means healthful and fat brings on thoughts of impending death.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Saturated fats and cholesterol are not all evil and carbs, most of them, are in fact the source of most of the diseases associated with “civilization”: diabetes, heart disease, cancer and obesity.
For those interested in the beauty effects of diet, it’s interesting to note that consuming too few fats and too many carbohydrates can cause rapid aging and wrinkling of the skin.
The mechanisms of aging and disease from low- fat, high carb diets are several and rather technical. We’ll merely summarize the data on these here and suggest some practical solutions you can use. In this newsletter we’ll focus on the carbohydrate portion of the issue. Fats will be covered in a future letter.
Carbs, Insulin and Aging
Carbohydrates include three types: sugars, starches and fiber. Sugars and starches can be broken down by the body and used. Fiber is (for humans) essentially indigestible but serves to keep us regular and has other useful functions.
Any time we consume sugars or starches, our body responds by producing some amount of the sugar-controlling hormone called insulin. Insulin helps keep blood sugar levels within safe limits. Insulin also helps the body store the excess energy in blood sugar in the form of fat. This of course has a survival value for people who live in “feast or famine” conditions, where they get a lot of food for a short period of the year and then have to live through the winter with relatively little. Stored fats help them keep going.
This useful factor of stored fats does not apply to civilized peoples who do not face ups and downs in food availability. Yet they consume starchy foods such as grains and many refined sugars. Their blood sugar and insulin levels tend to be elevated. Obesity follows closely the use of starchy and sugary foods in a population. Cutting carb intake thus becomes the easiest way to lose weight and keep it off.
As mentioned above, many diseases are traceable to the action of excess blood sugar and/or excessive insulin production and the reaction of the body to these conditions. A brief list of these diseases includes diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and obesity.
In the case of heart disease, it turns out that sugar in the blood sticks to and damages the proteins that make up the walls of the arteries. This damage then invites the formation of plaques and clogging of the arteries. Blood sugar can also make the blood more prone to stick together and coagulate. Insulin produced in response to the sugar can cause arterial spasms. Combine all three factors – damaged arteries, sticky blood and constricted arteries and you have a recipe for heart attacks!
Excessive blood sugar also causes damage to the major protein that makes up our skin- collagen. The sugar-caused damage leads to wrinkling of the skin as well as the formation of annoying spots.
The list of damage caused by excessive sugar intake and insulin production goes on and on. Suffice it to say that a low carb diet is advisable, and a high carb diet is quite commonly fatal.
What To Do?
This does not mean that one should then go onto a low-carb, high-protein, low-fat diet. Very high protein intake over an extended period can be very toxic to the body. Such diets should be limited to brief periods as part of a well-supervised program. No, for many people, believe it or not, both carbs and proteins should provide the minority of their caloric intake, with certain fats comprising the greater portion of the calories. A surprising statement that we’ll elaborate on in an upcoming issue.
Just one point about fats: The brain is over 50% fat (largely cholesterol). The building-block of the hormones in the body is cholesterol. Cholesterol plays huge roles in the function and health of the body. People who do not get enough of the right kind of fats will become deficient in cholesterol and thus weak, depressed, infertile and prematurely old.
A proper diet for an individual will give him a good quantity of concentrated nutrition without excessively affecting his blood sugar and insulin levels. Whole foods like green vegetables, some proteins and good quality fats will do the trick. Avoid sugars and most common carbs such as pasta, breads, potatoes, corn and so on. We’re researching some good recipe books now to share with you. We’ve located some excellent whole-food sources for you as well. You can see these here: https://www.evansgarden.com/wholefoods.html
Conclusion
These data have been well demonstrated in scientific research. One wonders why low-fat, high- carb diets are still generally promoted by the medical establishment, the FDA and food companies. Of course, a population that follows bad dietary advice represents a sizable revenue source for those people who make their living off sick people. If our medicos, like Chinese physicians, got paid only when their patients are healthy, we would probably hear quite a different message in the media.
Fortunately a few ethical physicians are stepping forward with the truth. See this link for one example: http://www.rosedalemetabolics.com/speech99.asp The above link contains very detailed and specific info on the effects of carbs and insulin on health.
I hope you find this data helpful to you and your family.
To health and happiness!
Evan